Abstract

Nuclear waste disposal is a technological project that produce uneven geographies—a longstanding concern of environmental justice scholars and activists. This article explores the scalar politics of nuclear waste governance in Switzerland by focusing on the activist group LoTi (Lägern ohne Tiefenlager) in the region recently proposed as the site of a deep geological nuclear waste repository (Nördlich Lägern). Drawing on geographical scholarship on environmental justice, the article analyzes LoTi's formation and evolution, focusing on how activists have framed and reframed their agenda and strategies in response to nuclear waste siting developments at different scales. It examines how LoTi has pursued these efforts both within and beyond participatory arrangements intended to facilitate local involvement and has strategically navigated shifting spaces of governance for strategic ends. Grounded in ethnographic fieldwork and document analysis, this article argues that site-specific opposition to repository siting is not simply a local response to a technological project of national significance, but is entangled in broader histories and geographies of nuclear energy and waste across multiple scales. By centering activists' perspectives and tracing their multi-scalar approach, the article offers a counter-narrative to dominant official accounts of nuclear waste governance, highlighting the importance of activism, particularly in highly technocratic domains.

Keywords: Environmental justice, environmental risk, activism, nuclear waste disposal, politics of governance, multi-scalar politics

How to Cite:

Emmenegger, R., (2026) “Out of sight, out of mind: Activism and the scalar politics of nuclear waste governance in Switzerland”, Journal of Political Ecology 33(1): 9234. doi: https://doi.org/10.2458/jpe.9234